Gennady Golovkin elected as World Boxing president

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Former unified middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin has been elected as president of World Boxing, the association that received recognition to oversee the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic boxing tournament.

Golovkin replaced Boris van der Vorst, the first-ever president of World Boxing, who announced his resignation from the post last Sept. 18, 2025.

“With your help I will do everything to restore trust in World Boxing,” said Golovkin during the World Boxing congress.

“Together we can achieve full IOC recognition and secure our place not only at Los Angeles 2028 but at all future Olympics.”

World Boxing officially replaced the International Boxing Association (IBA), the previous governing body of the Olympics that was expelled by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Following the IBA’s expulsion, the IOC took matters into their own hands and handled the Olympic competitions during the 2020 and 2024 Boxing tournaments.

Now that the IOC has provisionally recognized World Boxing, the association will now move at the helm, led by Golovkin.

Golovkin’s last dance inside the ring was in September 2022 against his archrival, Canelo Alvarez, during the last bout of their intense trilogy.

After the unanimous decision loss, Golovkin later confirmed that he would be hanging up his gloves for good and redirecting his focus to life after boxing.

Holding an impressive boxing résumé capped off with 42 wins, 37 knockouts and two losses, Golovkin was highly regarded as one of the most explosive middleweight champions boxing fans had ever witnessed.

Before challenging Alvarez for the unification bout, Golovkin never lost a single professional fight in 40 bouts and tallied a dominant 80% knockout percentage.